It seems like the Covid-19 outbreak is taking its toll even on e-hailing companies, including Grab Holdings Inc as well.
Grab co-founder and CEO Anthony Tan recently released a statement, confirming that the company is forced to lay off about 360 people, or slightly under 5% of its employees.
In his statement, Tan wrote, “Since February, we have seen the stark impact of Covid-19 on businesses globally, including ours. At the same time, it has become clear that the pandemic will likely result in a prolonged recession and we have to prepare for what may be a long recovery period.”
“Over the past few months, we have reviewed all costs, cut back on discretionary spending as well as implemented salary cuts for senior management. Despite that, we understand that we still have to be leaner as an organisation in facing the challenges of the post-pandemic economy,” he continued.
Tan further added that Grab is planning to terminate a few “non-core projects”, consolidate functions for greater efficiency and also lessen team sizes. It is also redistributing more resources to its on-demand delivery verticals. “We were able to save many jobs through this redeployment method and it helped limit the scope of the reduction exercise to just under 5%,” shared the CEO.
The good news is, the laid off workers will not leave the office empty-handed. In this case, they will receive several compensation including severance pay, enhanced separation salary, medical insurance coverage until the end of the year; encashment of unused annual leave and GrabFlex credits, just to name a few.
For those interested, check out the full statement from Tan here.
Source: The Star.
